City (Civ5)
Introduction A city is the basic unit of a Civilization, and in many ways its most valuable possession. Cities do most of the advancement in your civilization, creating Gold, Culture and Science, as well as Faith (Gods and Kings) and Tourism (Brave New World) for your empire. Cities also have the ability to produce buildings and units, and build . A Civilization is eliminated from the game (unless you have selected in the Custom Game menu the "Require Complete Kills" option) when all of its cities have been captured or razed. In the beginning of all games, scenarios and mods, there will be cities laid out or you will start with a to build a city. In advanced start, cities must be built before any units may be placed on the map. Border expansion Your empire's borders are created and expanded by cities. Each time you found a new city (starting with the capital), your empire's territory expands into the tiles immediately adjacent to your new city. When (and if) the city starts producing Culture, its borders start expanding, one tile at a time, thus enlarging your empire. Note that you can't expand into other civilization's or city-state's territory! You can also expand your borders by purchasing tiles with up to three tiles away from any city. City population and work Cities are the source of your ' Population'. Each city has a certain population, or number of citizens. It starts at Population 1, and increases constantly under the right circumstances. Besides determining the size of the city for some purposes, the citizens serve as the workforce of your empire. They are assigned to 'work' the land around your city (again, up to three tiles away), or fill the specialist slots created by certain buildings inside the city. This assignment is automatic, but you can also control it from the city screen. Always remember, without citizens working the land, its potential remains unused. It doesn't matter that a certain tile in your territory has potential of 2 , 1 and 3 , if nobody is working it! So, be mindful of which tiles are being worked, because that's what will determine your overall city efficiency. If you don't like the automatic assignment, step in and assign workers manually! Population growth The population growth of a city, or the birth of new citizens, is determined by the city's stat. To put it bluntly, the more Food your city is producing, the faster its population will grow. For more details, check Food production. City production Every city has the ability to build (produce) buildings, units, or projects. Availability of each depends on whether the technology unlocking it has been researched, and whether its prerequisites have been met. For example, certain buildings may only be built if a city is in a tile adjacent to a coast, others are part of chains, requiring previous buildings from the chain, before becoming available, etc. Once all prerequisites have been met, you can assign the building, or unit, as the next production project. The rate at which the current production project is developing depends on the total amount of Production points produced by your city per turn. They count towards the total amount of points that form the cost of each thing you're building, and when the total is reached, the project is done. As a rule, the more advanced the thing you're building, the more it costs, so you either need to expand in your city, or wait more turns to produce what you want. Buildings Those are permanent structures erected in your city. Once built, they produce their benefit continuously. Only one of each building may be built in each city. It's also worth noting that almost all buildings cost your empire some as Maintenance each turn. Gold-generating buildings, such as the Market, and defensive buildings, such as the Castle, have no maintenance. Fo more information on buildings, Wonders, their qualities and effects, check the Buildings article. Units Combat or non-combat units may also be produced in your cities. Unlike buildings, you can produce as many of those as you want, but be warned - they also cost to maintain! Once finished, these units appear in the city, ready to be moved out and used. You can start and stop production of a certain unit or building as many times as you want, until you finish it (by filling all the necessary Production points for it). Note that in the case of Wonders, each city can start the project (if it meets the necessary pre-requisites), but you can't transfer production of the same project between cities! For example, you can't start The Colossus in city A''', then stop it, and continue it in city '''B from the same production point. Also, if another city, or civilization, beats you to building a Wonder you've been working on, you get some as a consolation price. Purchasing items in cities You can also use Gold to purchase instantly any building or unit you've unlocked empire-wide in a city (in the case of a building, the city also must fulfill the necessary prerequisites). Note that you can't purchase a military unit, if you already have one stationed in the city! The same goes for a civilian unit, if you have one in the city, or a naval vessel. In the Gods and Kings expansion, you can also purchase stuff with Faith. Same rules apply here. See Religion for more info. Civilization stats production The overall production of a city, or how much exactly of each stat ( , , etc.) it is producing, depends on many factors, but paramount among them are: *Workers (citizens), and where (which tiles or Specialist slots) they are assigned to work *Buildings (including Wonders), available in the city City or Empire modifiers often add to the basis amount for each stat, as do temporary bonuses, etc. Look in the upper left corner of the city screen to see at a glance how much of each stat the city is producing, and roll over it for a detailed description. Capturing cities During war, if a city loses all its health points AND an enemy melee unit manages to move into it, the city is conquered. A part of its population is destroyed in the process (roughly half of it), and it takes some turns for all damage to defensive structures to be repaired and for the city to return to full health. If you capture a city, you get the following options: *Annex the city. That means taking the city and officially making it your own - you receive full control of it, you may build stuff, assign workers, etc. The city is, however, counted as 'Occupied', and adds extra Unhappiness. You can eliminate the extra Unhappiness by building a Courthouse in it. *Puppet the city. You install a puppet government, declaring that the city is 'autonomous', and not really a part of your empire (despite you having conquered it). Puppet cities add their territory to yours, and contribute their stat production to your empire (Culture, Science, etc.), but you can't control citizens, city production, or buy stuff in the city. The benefit to is that you get a lot less extra Unhappiness from the city than Occupied cities, and that the city doesn't count in your empire for purposes of Social Policies and Golden Ages. You can also annex the city whenever you like. *Raze the city. The most violent option - it causes the said city to be destroyed, by killing one Population per turn, until it reaches zero. At that point the city becomes a city ruin, and the territory controlled by it vanishes. Beware though, when razing a city, empire's unhappiness will spike sharply, then decline rapidly as the city burns down. *Liberate the city. If it belonged to a third party before you conquered it, you can choose to return it back to their former owner, thereby placing the city under AI control. Thus you can even resurrect a dead civilization! This option nets you a large influence with the third party in question, indebting them to you. Cities can also be given or liberated via trade to a civ. Resistance When you acquire a city, be it via conquest or diplomacy, its population will resist your domination for a number of turns equal to their remaining population. While in resistance, a city can't build anything - not even contribute to your empire stats! However, it immediately adds to the empire's Unhappiness. Mind that when considering what to do with a city.